OBJECTIVE
- Students Will Be Able To (SWBAT) demonstrate the ability to use yarn and rope to create art
Essential Question
- Can yarn be used in printmaking?
- How can rope or yarn be used to create art?
SUPPLIES
- Gelli Arts® Gel Printing Plate
- Acrylic paints
- Brayer
- Card stock or watercolor paper
- Hemp rope or eyelash yarn
Step-by-Step
This is a fun, new technique for faux marbling! Although the technique is very simple, once you start you may not be able to stop because every print you pull is a surprise and very magical.
- Start by taking a piece of hemp rope and pulling it apart until you have a bunch of fine threads.
- Make some simple background prints in two colors, just to add some color to the paper.
- For the second layer, roll out a thin layer of two or three colors on the plate. Then place the thin threads on top of the paint and pull a print on top of one of your Gelli Arts® printed backgrounds.
- Rub firmly, lift up the paper, and remove the loose threads. That’s it!
- You can also leave the left over threads on the plate and apply paint on top for your next print, which makes it even more interesting. You can, of course, add new threads as well.
- Sometimes when your layer of paint is thin enough and there are not too many threads left on the plate they get totally embedded in the print and you can just leave them on the paper. This is adding awesome texture to your print.
- Vary with the amount and thickness of the threads to get different results.
- Instead of adding threads to the plate, another thing you can try is to not clean your brayer and use the threads that stuck to your brayer from a previous print to create very fine texture.
- Also try making prints on white paper to get little white highlights.
- The less threads that are left on the plate, the more subtle the result will be. You can just carry on printing without adding new threads until your plate is clean. Or when the color of the threads is getting too dirty, you can just use a baby wipe to clean the plate.
You can also combine this technique with stencils and other printmaking tools! Totally easy, fun, and beautiful!
IMAGES REFERENCED
